


Recent Calls

by biblionerd07



Category: Supernatural
Genre: Ficlet, M/M, Phone Calls, Sam observing, Sorta episode tag to 9x18, Worried boys
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-04-28
Updated: 2014-04-28
Packaged: 2018-01-21 02:05:19
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 601
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1533632
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/biblionerd07/pseuds/biblionerd07
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Sam doesn't mean to overhear Dean on the phone, and he feels guilty about it.  But not guilty enough not to check Dean's recent calls to see who it was.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Recent Calls

**Author's Note:**

> I set out to write utter fluff and this...is not it.

“Okay.” Dean is saying as Sam comes around a corner. Dean’s on the phone and Sam wonders who he’s talking to. His back is to Sam, and Sam doesn’t bother alerting Dean to his presence. “Be careful. Please?” His voice is low and almost pleading. “I know. I know, I know. But can you just _please_ be careful? Just try.” Sam hasn’t heard this much emotion in Dean’s voice in weeks. He feels an odd ache in his chest he doesn’t even fully understand. Sam starts inching his way out of the room backwards. He shouldn’t be listening to this.

“Yeah. Alright, I promise. We’ll figure out a way to meet up soon.” There is a long pause where Dean pulls in a breath, runs a hand through his hair, his shoulder blades tensing. “I miss you.” He almost whispers it. There is something terribly intimate in Dean’s voice and Sam wants to apologize for even innocently overhearing it.

“I’m doing my best.” Dean’s voice still drifts into Sam’s ears. “I’ll see you soon. Bye.”

Sam waits a few minutes before going back into the kitchen, deliberately making noise and bumping his arm on the wall on his way in. “Hey,” he says breezily to Dean’s back, which is still turned to him. Dean’s shoulders are hunched and his head is bowed, but he quickly straightens at the sound of Sam coming in behind him.

“Hiya, Sammy.” Dean doesn’t look at Sam as he brushes past him to leave the kitchen. Sam hears him go down the hallway. He left his phone on the counter. Sam eyes it, fighting the urge to look at it. In the end, his curiosity wins, even as the voice in the back of his head accusingly reminds him _he_ was the one who wanted to be less codependent.

He hesitates one last time before hitting the button for the call log. The recent calls list is longer than he expected and he’s not sure how he feels about what he’s seeing. Apparently Dean’s been on the phone a lot lately. And some of them are long phone calls, too. A call from two nights ago proclaims to be over an hour long.

Sam feels a slight lump in his throat. Everything is so messed up. Dean has the Mark of Cain and it’s making him dark and violent and, honestly, a bit scary. Sam and Dean aren’t even sure how to talk to one another anymore. But it looks like Dean has something that’s at least making him somewhat happy, even if it means a lot of being apart and longing and phone calls instead of in-person conversations. Sam doesn’t begrudge Dean this relationship, if that’s what it turns out to be. He wants his brother to open up, truly, and actually _let_ himself be happy.

Sam snaps the phone closed and carefully replaces it on the counter. He grabs a bottle of juice out of the fridge and takes a swig, staring off into space. He’s a little surprised, but more at the fact that Dean’s got _anything_ going than with whom. He knows he won’t say anything to Dean. The name on the call log answers a hell of a lot of questions for Sam. Because it was only one name, on all those calls, long ones in the middle of the night, short ones on random afternoons, the one Sam just overheard the tail end of. One name that leaves Sam feeling a little confused but not terribly conflicted. One name that Sam will think about for a while to come.

_Cas._


End file.
